The Solar Dynamics Observatory is in the middle of "eclipse season" as it orbits 22,000 miles above the earth.
Wednesday’s solar eclipse was seen over the Pacific Ocean but it wasn’t the only one seen this week. If you happened to be in the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a 6,600-pound spacecraft orbiting more than 22,000 miles above the earth, you would see a daily eclipse for 3 weeks. The SDO is currently in the midst of what is known at NASA as “eclipse season,” which runs from Feb. 19 and through March 12.
At the beginning of the 3-week period, the eclipse lasts only a few minutes, but by the beginning of March the daily occurrence lasts for 72 minutes. On March 12 the eclipse will be only a few minutes, and then everything will return to normal.
According to NASA, eclipse season happens because the earth passes between the SDO and the sun. The SDO was launched 6 years ago, on Feb. 11, 2010. It is the first mission launched as part of NASA’s Living With a Star (LWS) Program, which is designed to understand the causes of solar variability and the impact of that variability on Earth. SDO’s design is to help Earth’s scientists understand the influence of the sun on earth, and the space near earth, through the study of the solar atmosphere.
SDO is studying how solar activity is created, including how weather in space results from that activity. It is a semi-autonomous, sun-pointing spacecraft that allows nearly continuous observations of the Sun. A continuous science data downlink send its observations to earth at a rate of 130 Megabits per second. The SDO has an inclined geosynchronous orbit, which was chosen to allow continuous observation of the sun. Except during eclipse season, that is.
Photo credit: NASA
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